The Digital Divide, AI & Other Technology News

Technology has become instrumental for marketers. Today they employ on average 6 different channels in an effort to connect with all their potential customers.

Embracing technology… Empowering people… Delivering positive change

Whats new this week…

1. Knowledge-sharing

Last week we touched on the potential end of Wikipedia. And while they – along with other forms of traditional knowledge-sharing – will continue in some form, online experiences and behaviors are changing so rapidly because of the integrative nature of technological tools. Thus innovation is making knowledge-collection, analysis, sharing and collaboration more efficient outside of the traditional wheelhouse.

“From text and visual-based social media platforms, to video-streaming sites, review sites and podcasts, digital innovation will continue to make knowledge available to us at a moment’s notice.”

For marketers we must embrace this opportunity, by articulating unique, credible and tangible value. The key to doing so comes from using this global currency effectively – by filtering noise vs. insights, offering ROI vs. spin.

It all starts with being transparent!

Which leads us to…

2. Net Neutrality

While net neutrality is a simple concept to understand in principle, regulating it for the good of society, while ensuring freedom of speech, is not.

For governments, ensuring ISPs “do not block, slow, or otherwise discriminate against certain content or applications” is not easy. Which is why taking a look at other nationalities approaches can serve us well.

Network technology must keep pace with the avalanche of tech savvy users, devices and data demands coming online every day. Is a “government run Internet” what we want to see? Or is it wishful thinking to even think we can avoid it, in an era of digital disruption that in so many ways impacts national security?

3. The Digital Divide

As the gap in computer access rapidly closes, we appear to be at a nexus of its use. Highlighted in the fact that “as more poor families get access to technology, their kids’ screen time expands.”

Marketing is indeed tech-dependant because of the industry’s obsessive need for results – as the ocean of data gets deeper, user behaviors change almost overnight and online intent is compromised so often.

Because of this, search marketers touch an enormous amount of tactical areas within the marketing mix. Marketing functions should therefore be looking long and hard at how they setup their teams and align with technology partners with these people in mind.

5. Retail MarTech

Considering the strategic alignment of marketing teams in a tech-led era, let’s take a look at a couple of specific industries.

First up retail, and how a specific group of marketing technologies should be top priority in any retailers digital strategy.

The retail industry moves at breakneck speed. A business can become marginalized very quickly if their offer no longer resonates for one of a thousand reasons. As such the right technology base is essential, all the time and it needs to be always on.

6. Automotive MarTech

Super article on how the major automakers are gearing up to take on Google, Tesla and others, as several tech giants aggressively push their way into a very traditional marketplace.

From Frank Gillett, VP and principal analyst at Forrester Research, “when we think of digital transformations of car companies, it’s this real pivot from burning sheet metal and building motorized culture to selling mobility services that understand and help customers get around… Where CMOs are investing right now is with product and designing things into cars.”

Times are changing, competition is fierce, and this all bodes well for the consumer. Just as fintech forced traditional financial organizations to change, autotech is doing the same in the automotive industry.

7. Cloud Computing

“Between technology waves there is always a tipping point. It’s not that moment when the new tech becomes dominant but the moment when that dominance becomes clearly inevitable. For cloud computing it is suggested the tipping point came a month ago.”

“Digital policies can help citizens by making interactions with the state easier, cheaper, and less corrupt. They help entire regions by making everyone more productive. Now, it’s likely that most nations – even those with poverty – have smart digitization opportunities waiting to get implemented, where a little money can generate a big push forward.”

9. MarTech

Do you have a MarTech Stack and strategic marketing roadmap? You probably do in some form and it’s likely manifested over time through a mix of inherited tools, opportunistic purchases and well-planned investments.

Oftentimes this is a mishmash of disconnected tools and techniques, strategies and campaigns, “resulting in something that sort of works, but which you often wish you could toss out and start over.”